I removed and hid all the updates in that list that I had. I ended up "Preparing to update windows" for more than an hour. Hard power crashed it. It worked after that. I have the list in a text file and I'll check any updates against it.

I Found that I had one or two of those in that list that had managed to sneak by me over the past 2-3 months (admittedly, the earlier ones, because I didn't do enough research back then). The update that added the diagnostic tracking service is the one that I believe was the culprit, on both my main machine and the laptop, after removing it and doing a manual restart, they both did "configuring updates..." just fine, and restarted. On boot-up, they both took absolutely forever (15-20 minutes sitting at an indicated 100% with zero disk activity), but they did eventually finish on their own and then I was able to log in. I went and checked with services.msc and that service was no longer there, so I guess part of the removal process makes it take absolutely forever.

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Linux laptop:
record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up)

I'm assuming the five just added were specific to Window$ 7 or 10 as there were no such on my 8.1 machines. Good to have this list, I'm sharing with all I have warned and I have offered help in removal if needed.

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"Sour Grapes make a bitter Whine." <(0)>

My understanding is that some of them are for 8.1

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The Universe is not only stranger than you imagine, it's stranger than you can imagine.

SETI@home classic workunits 1,405 CPU time 57,318 hours

It is a new world where privacy is fast becoming a thing of the past.

Few small bells when peoples got fired because of their facebook profiles seems don't teach the rest :)

I'm assuming the five just added were specific to Window$ 7 or 10 as there were no such on my 8.1 machines. Good to have this list, I'm sharing with all I have warned and I have offered help in removal if needed.

My understanding is that some of them are for 8.1

Yes, some of those KB numbers are 8.1-only, and some are 7-only. The ones that are one or the other do the exact same thing, they just got different KB numbers for the two OSes

For example (Red for 8.1, Blue for 7, Green for either/both):

KB 2952664 - Labeled a compatibility upgrade for upgrading Windows 7, its purpose is to "make improvements to the current operating system in order to ease the upgrade experience to the latest version of Windows".
KB 2957026 - This update makes feature changes and improvements to the Windows 8.1 Upgrade notification in Windows 8 or Windows RT. After you install this update, the upgrade will be more discoverable and faster.
KB 2976978 - A compatibility update for Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 which "performs diagnostics on the Windows system [..] to determine whether compatibility issues may be encountered when the latest Windows operating system is installed.
KB 2977759 - This update performs diagnostics on the Windows systems that participate in the Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program. These diagnostics help determine whether compatibility issues may be encountered when the latest Windows operating system is installed. This update will help Microsoft and its partners ensure compatibility for customers who want to install the latest Windows operating system.
KB 2990214 - Does the same as KB 3044374 but on Windows 7.
KB 3021917 - Does the same as KB 2976978 but on Windows 7.
KB 3022345 - Update to enable the Diagnostics Tracking Service in Windows (Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1)
KB 3035583 - This update installs the "Get Windows 10" notification on Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8.1
KB 3044374 - This update for Windows 8.1 enables systems to upgrade from the current operating system to a later version of Windows.
KB 3065987 - This article describes an update that contains some improvements to Windows Update Client in Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (note: some google results suggest this may be part of the win 10 nagware upgrade, but it hasn't been confirmed)
KB 3068708 - This update introduces the Diagnostics and Telemetry tracking service to existing devices.
KB 3075249 - This update adds telemetry points to the User Account Control (UAC) feature to collect information on elevations that come from low integrity levels.
KB 3075851 - This article describes an update that contains some improvements to Windows Update Client in Windows 7 and also resolves an issue in which certain Windows Update operations fail when you install (KB3065987) on Windows 7 Embedded editions.
KB 3080149 - This package updates the Diagnostics and Telemetry tracking service to existing devices.

So on a system that has just installed every update without question, you won't find that whole list on there. That's not really a problem: if you can't find the installed update, then it isn't installed.

Using one of the other handy posts in this thread recently, the command-line option for uninstalling them, "wusa" (Windows Update Stand Alone) can be made quite handy by making a .bat file with that whole list of KB numbers, run it, and done. If the update doesn't exist, then nothing happens.

edit: since I started doing the color-coded list.. I figured I might as well just do the rest of it.

edit2: So as to be open and fair about the information I've mentioned thus far, you should feel free to check behind me for yourself to see what these updates do. The format for the URL is: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/xxxxxxx (purposely not a click-able link). Replace xxxxxxx with the 7-digit number.

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Linux laptop:
record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up)

My PC is MY PC,

Nope, not with Win10... It's just "This PC" now :/

It was "This PC" with Windows 8 as well.

It is a new world where privacy is fast becoming a thing of the past.

Of course we don't like it, but I am not sure there is much we can do to stop it.

This is what bothers me the most.
Sure, most of us are very upset over this, and there are things we can do to minimize our web presence for now. The real problem is that every day, privacy is being eroded in one way or another from countless sources. Even where I live in central New Hampshire, cameras are going up everywhere. There are even some 20 of them throughout my work place, and I have one right over my head. They are in stores, at traffic intersections, toll booths, and just along the highways. Face recognition software is more and more wide spread. I can log into a huge number of webcams all over the state, country, and world. The gas stations I use track my debit card, and even they have cameras pointed right at me as I fill my tank with gas. Even without any computing device at all, should I somehow raise a flag, and attract attention, I could be found very easily. In many cases this has helped to find people who would do us harm, but none of us live in anonymity any more. The current generation is brought up with their data being gathered from day one, and they will never know what is it like to be unconnected. Every generation looks back to the good old days, and I fear that no longer will a child just be able to go out in the woods and play without that information being shared as a life path.

Steve

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Warning, addicted to SETI crunching!
Crunching as a member of GPU Users Group.
GPUUG Website

I understand that us power users are but a quite small percentage of the overall market and that the typical user either forgets to do updates for things, or they don't know what the updates do, or they get the notification that something is out of date and they don't know what to do and it scares them, so they just ignore it, which leaves a vulnerability open, and then they get a virus or some piece of malware and it costs them money to fix it, or they go and start bad-mouthing MS for allowing that to happen, when it was their own negligence that caused it in the first place.

So the simplest thing to do is to just make updates automatic. And how can you expect MS to make a better product for the masses without gathering some market research? Purportedly, that's what all the telemetry, keylogging and data-mining is for: to be analyzed for patterns to see if there can be an improvement in some process to make it less convoluted, or one less step to achieve the same end-result. That's progress and development, and I have absolutely no qualms with progress and development.

But the part that I do have a problem with is that you can't opt-out of it. In fact, that should be something that should only be enabled or allowed if you opt-in. The majority of people would probably never opt-in anyway, but it should still be our choice.

1984:
-You can turn it off?!
-Yes, it's our privilege

...

Very good summary there.

The bigger problem and risk is with how all that gathered constant monitoring of our daily lives is used. And by whom...

Just for the one example of what I've seen for Windows... To me looks like what once was a graphics shell running on top of DOS now looks more like an advertising and user monitoring portal for Microsoft to profit from directed Marketing on their user base. All very definitely not for the good experience for the users. You have become the product for Microsoft and others to exploit...


IT is what we allow it to be...
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Greetings,

Man, I don't know. I have become a bit 'gun shy' about these updates for Win7 now. Do I trust them? I do not trust Micro$soft any further than I can throw Redmond, Washington. ;)

I have been uninstalling and hiding all the updates listed here. I am keeping a Notepad document list of them. Which reminds me...

This morning I found that I had to uninstall an update for the second time: KB2952664. No idea how that one slipped through... again. :\

Now I'm seeing 11 more updates that want to crawl onto 'MY' PC with 11 more 'optional' ones. I have much better things to do than to babysit all these fracking updates Micro$oft wants to push on us to screw with my Win7 and PC. LEAVE 'MY' PC ALONE MICRO$OFT!!! This is at least the second batch of updates this month; I'm thinking more like the third. That's what it seems anyway.

If this S*%T keeps up, I will be making some major sacrifices and going with Linux. I DO NOT want Win10!!! I DO NOT want BIG Brother watching my every move, online. What I do online is my business and mine alone. As long as I am not doing anything illegal, no one else has any say as to what I can or cannot do online. ESPECIALLY MICRO$OFT!!! :|

Keep on BOINCing...! :)

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CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

One of these days we'll get Service Pack 2 for Windows 7, with all those goodies and more default included. Of course. :)

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But that's not Service Pack 2. That's just the data collection and only part of it. I've read and followed the thread till so far, no need to recap for me.

A service pack under Windows holds all the updates since the last service pack, or the last cumulative update. So if Microsoft decides to push a service pack our way, all the above will be included. No choice on whether you want it installed, it'll be installed. Although you probably do have the chance to uninstall the individual updates you don't want.

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This morning I found that I had to uninstall an update for the second time: KB2952664. No idea how that one slipped through... again. :\


Siran d'Vel'nahr

If you look, it's back again .. This update helps Microsoft make improvements to the current operating system in order to ease the upgrade experience to the latest version of Windows .. whatever that means .. released 4/22

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2952664 is one of the several that have been re-re-re-released (and probably a few more iterations of 're-' in there, to be honest) because they still can't seem to get it to install/work right. So they change some code in it, and as I said once before in this thread about some other update: "the unique hash identifier for it changed, so therefore it is seen as an entirely-new update, even though it still has the same KB number."

Therefore, when you hide it, if the unique hash for it changes in the future, it will show back up again as a new update. Just have to stay vigilant with the known KB numbers, and don't jump right onto new updates that come along: always research them first, and if you give it a few days before researching, that gives tech sites and forums the chance to figure out what it actually does.

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Linux laptop:
record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up)

I think I have good news to report in my usage of the O&O Software.

Win 10 on dad's new ASUS laptop just performed a Cumulative Update; then required the system to reboot. Upon reboot, I checked system over. Cortana remains disabled, and other security features from O&O seem to remain enabled.

I will continue monitoring system and let you all know if anything changes.


TL

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TimeLord04
Have TARDIS, will travel...
Come along K-9!
Join Calm Chaos

This morning Windows 10 informed me that Firewall has stopped BOINC and asked me if I was willing to accept it. Of course I said Yes. I have no AV, only Windows Defender.
Tullio

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This morning Windows 10 informed me that Firewall has stopped BOINC and asked me if I was willing to accept it. Of course I said Yes. I have no AV, only Windows Defender.
Tullio

We are using PCMatic; but, Kaspersky is a good AV to use as well. For my dad's new laptop, ASUS included McAfee; but, after getting the system upgraded to 10, I removed all traces of McAfee in favor of PCMatic. It seems, (at least for dad's new laptop), that after installing PCMatic that Win 10 disabled Windows Defender, I received a popup message to this effect. I assume that this popup would have occurred with any 3rd party AV being installed. Funny, though, that on our Win 7 systems, that PCMatic and Windows Defender both run fine.


TL

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TimeLord04
Have TARDIS, will travel...
Come along K-9!
Join Calm Chaos

I was looking through the optional updates in Windows Update and came across this one.
KB3050265.
It said that it adds a Group Policy Object that allows you to block upgrade to Win 10.
Can someone who knows more about these things than me take a look at it?
Maybe M$ is taking the hint.
Thanks

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Bruce

I was looking through the optional updates in Windows Update and came across this one.
KB3050265.
It said that it adds a Group Policy Object that allows you to block upgrade to Win 10.
Can someone who knows more about these things than me take a look at it?
Maybe M$ is taking the hint.
Thanks

One thing I've found interesting about these known KB numbers for the past month or two is how the wording and description of them change over time. Off the top of my head, I don't recall specifically which ones were very clear about what they did at time of release, but just a couple weeks later, it was completely rewritten to be vague and rather generic/general and didn't really describe what it does.

However, 3050265 is not a new update. Scroll down a little bit in this InfoWorld article and they describe what it said it would do back then, at least.

Also, if you look waaaaaay down at the bottom of the offical article for it, you'll notice it is now on "Revision: 4.0." So either at 3.0 or 4.0, the group policy stuff was likely added.

It's great that there is a group policy option to block upgrading to 10... but that still won't prevent you from getting the telemetry tracking updates that you won't want.

Either way, being that it is an optional update that specifically fixes errors with systems that have a small amount of RAM, if you don't have a small amount of RAM and you aren't getting errors when scanning for updates, you don't need it. Aside from that specific problem that it fixes, it also makes improvements to the upgrade process, so.. if you're not interested in upgrading, you doubly don't need it.

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Linux laptop:
record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up)

Just wanted to go ahead and add to my previous post with this Arstechnica article which explains the data-collecting regimes being added to 7/8 a bit more clearly.

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Linux laptop:
record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up)